New to Photo Impressionism - Please Critique

[esrazor]

Hi,

I just found this list and the wealth of information that it offers. I've been experimenting with photo impressionism techniques for a few months and would appreciate your comments regarding this latest sample "photo painting".

This is all done with Photoshop CS2. I've also included the source image. My interest is in small garden scenes and landscapes, as opposed to portraits.

Thanks for all of your input. I hope to get a lot from this group (and hopefully contribute some ideas as I get more experienced, too.)

Please note, I've scaled down the images to reduce file size and increase performance when previewing. The final painted image and the source image can be found here:
http://www.realscenery.com/paintings/source.jpg
http://www.realscenery.com/paintings/EnglishGarden.jpg

I look forward to your opinions

Thanks!

Eric

[CathyH]

Welcome Eric,
I love gardening.
I think you painting has good composition, and the paiting is good. But to me the green is too bright green.
Did you do anything to the photo before painting?
Cathy

[palms1]

Welcome Eric

i really like your painting ( and superb photo ) i agree with CathyH that the green is a bit to vivid for a lot of peoples choice, me I like it


Palms

[Swampy]

Make that 3. The colors in the original are subtile and the painted version has too much saturation.

[DannyRaphael]

Hi Eric...

A belated welcome. First of all, regardless of the color debate, I like the style/look you achieved. If you'd care to provide some info on how you achieved your transformation, I'm sure many (including myself) would be interested.

On the colors, I'm OK with bright/saturated. That's one thing that helps distinguish paintings from photos. The challenge here is the dominance of green and the uniformity of the color. It's kind of overwhelming.

I attempted to add some color variation by emphasizing some of the shadow areas. Just something to consider -- food for thought.

The important thing to keep in mind is, "If YOU like, then that's the vote that counts the most."

Hope we'll be seeing more of your work in the future.

[esrazor]

Thanks Danny,

I appreciate your input and also that you took the time to try and improve my "painting".

I'll get my technique posted that I used to create this. Would you also care to share how you enhanced that shadowing? It appears to have made the image much more brown in appearance in some areas which I think looks good in many places.

Thanks again. I'll be posting more images soon as I get more time.

I'm also off to vacation in Florida with my family in a couple of weeks. One of my goals while there is to get lots of pictures that I can "paint". I look forward to having more images critiqued by the folks here!

Eric

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by esrazor

I appreciate your input and also that you took the time to try and improve my "painting".

Glad you took it in the spirit intended -- not as knocking-your-effort "criticism" but as a visual example of ideas to consider that would be difficult to communicate in words.

I'll get my technique posted that I used to create this.

That would be great when you get the time. You'll need some "downtime" when you get back from FL, as in "a vacation to recover from your vacation," so maybe then! (ha-ha)

Would you also care to share how you enhanced that shadowing?

Sure. See attached screen grab of Layers palette... Just a pile of adjustment layers & messing with settings. In the top three I a) tinkered with the controls until I got the desired result, b) inverted the mask [ctrl + i], then c) airbrushed with white to selectively applying the effect.

The top Levels adjustment layer was set to Overlay which yielded the "brown" tones.

Adjustment layers are "non-destructive." If ya don't like the effect/results of an AL, delete it and no harm done. Easy to "adjust/tinker with" effects now or a month from now. No increase in file size, either. I *love* adjustment layers. Try experimenting with Selective Color AL if you haven't yet.

I'm also off to vacation in Florida with my family in a couple of weeks. One of my goals while there is to get lots of pictures that I can "paint". I look forward to having more images critiqued by the folks here!

Hope you have/had a blast. We'll be here when you get back.